First Christmas Fun!

Today was Peter's company Kids Christmas party. It was held at a club here, Colsubsidio Bellavista. It's a country club, with tennis, pools, games, lounge chairs etc. that Peter's company pays for us to belong to as part of their benefits package.

Although he's so little, Lukas was able to participate with some infant stimulation exercises. A massage lesson, tactile fun with loofahs and sponges and styrofoam marbles, smelling some different scents, tasting lemon and sugar, and playing on a mat. He was a little overstimulated at the end of all this, and liked watching the other kids best of all. We had a nice bbq lunch, and then of course a very special visit from Papa Noel! His very first Christmas present is an annoying Barney doll, that warbles away and plays songs with different instruments when you press them. Fun!

Food Fun

So most of the time the food here is 100% enjoyable. I am an adventurous eater for the most part, and usually will take at least one bite of something, or try something suggested by a relative here. However, there have proven to be a couple of exceptions during my time here in Colombia.

One exception was Mondongo Soup. Upon visiting Peters Aunt Carmen, who is 80+ years old, and very old time proper, and who had formally invited us to lunch, I found myself staring down a bowl of Mondongo Soup. Most of you might know Mondongo as Tripe. No matter how hard I tried I couldn't bring myself to eat it. The texture, taste and look of it were just too much. I tried to sneak it across the table to Peters Mom, but alas Tia Carmen is sharp only at inopportune moments. She falls asleep mid channel change while watching tv, but the jig on this was up in 30 seconds flat. So I had to fess up and have the offending dish removed.

So, on the odd occasion something just proves too much for me.

Last nights foray into the culinary delights at the Parque Nacional Christmas display was another time when it just proved all too much. We stopped at one of the vendors and I asked Peter to buy me an empanada. An empanada is a wonderful little deep fried, meat and potato filled, corn dough encased wonder. Add some Aji (hot sauce) and they reach levels of addictiveness. These are empanadas.

SO. Peter bought three of what I thought were empanadas, same shape and size. Oddly people were calling them Pastele, but I thought nothing of it. Lukas was tired, it was getting too late and I was too hungry to think it through. When we got home, I excitedly opened the bag and took a BIG bite. An empanada it was not.. here's what it was...

Yup, an egg. And rice. Deep fried together in batter. Normally I am a fan of the egg, and of the humble little rice grain. But when you are expecting lovely hot, greasy, deep fried meat and potatoes and this is what ends up in your mouth as a bedtime snack.. well it's just not the same.

Christmas has arrived in the BOG

If there's one thing Bogota DOES know how to do it's celebrate Christmas. Way before Halloween I started to see people dragging Christmas trees home... well that was just a tiny whisper of what happens once November/December rolls around. Decorations and trees and EVERYTHING festive EVERYWHERE you look! There are five public parks that are all decorated with five different lighting themes. Tonight we went to Parque Nacional where the theme is "Tierra" or Land/Earth. Soooo pretty, butterflies, geckos, vines, mushrooms all made out of lights. Lots of vendors selling yummy street food, comedians, balloon sellers and lots of happy people enjoying it all. The pictures will never do it justice, but I am posting some for you to enjoy anyways. I plan on dragging my husband to all five parks, so more pictures to come!!